Pitchfork "Best of the Best": 9.1 Rated Albums

This is the continuation from Part 1: 9.0 Rated Albums, Part 2: 9.1 Rated Albums, of my Pitchfork "Best of the Best" new music feature series.  Click on the blurbs to read the full reviews of each album.

Starting with the most recent (2009) and working back to 2003, here are the Pitchfork 9.1 rated albums:

Girls - Album

[True Panther; 2009] “The canniness of Album's production choices and the scuzzy depression of the lyrics and the gut-level songwriting instincts, along with everything else about the record, add up to something elusive and fascinating-- maybe even heartbreaking.”

Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair

[DFA; 2008] “While most tracks could work on a forward-thinking dancefloor, what really works is the songwriting-- the album brims with hooks, choruses, bridges, strange twists, and turns.”

Battles - Mirrored

[Warp; 2007] “This foursome's first full-length is a mix of over-the-top whimsy, extreme rhythms, vise-tight musicianship, and a 21st century man-machine interface between live and laptop.”

Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury

[Jive; 2006] “ ...wordplay abounds but the punches are quick and devastating-- and musically, Malice and Pusha T have arguably snatched the best dozen Neptunes tracks in years.”

Pitchfork "Best of the Best": 9.0 Rated Albums

Pitchfork album reviews have an incredible influence on a new artist's success. Favorable Pitchfork reviews have been strongly credited with "breaking" bands including Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Modest Mouse.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah member Lee Sargent said, "The thing about a publication like Pitchfork is that they can decide when [success] happens. You know what I mean? They can say, 'We're going to speed up the process and this is going to happen...now!" 

The influence of enthusiastic reviews from Pitchfork.com - anything above an 8.0 on their scale out of 10.0 - on new artists has disputably surpassed that of reviews from even NY Times and Rolling Stone magazine.

I've sifted through the top rated (9.0 rating or better) of Pitchfork's "Best New Music" albums.  I'll start with the 9.0 albums and work up every 0.1 rating increase with each subsequent post: